Adsense

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

UFOs spotted over ApalachicolaApalachicola TimesThe Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) published a reported UFO sighting submitted by a witness who listed Apalachicola as his or her location. The following report submitted the same evening as the sighting allegedly occurred,. “(I) was in my backyard with my ...

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

The origin of Valentine's Day has nothing to do with love and everything to do with "torturous martyrdom." On second thought, perhaps the origin of Valentine's Day has a great deal to do with love*

Originally, the feast day of St. Valentine honored two third century martyrs by the name of Valentine who were elevated to sainthood in the early middle ages. Both Valentines -- one the Bishop of Terni and the other a priest in Rome -- were allegedly decapitated by their persecutors on February 14.

Incidentally, St. Valentine (as the two Valentines seem to have merged into one figure by the 9th century) is the patron saint of epileptics, not lovers.

Medieval miracle plays based on the Bishop of Terni Valentine show him brutally beaten, bloodied, and decapitated before angels transport him to heaven. It really puts you in a mood for love.

According to author Leigh E. Schmidt, several locales in Europe claimed Terni's relics, as they were widely dispersed. Several different shrines claimed possession of his skull.

There was no link between St. Valentine's Day and love until the 14th century. At that time, some scholars claim that Chaucer associated Valentine's Day with lovers by describing it as the day on which birds select their mates.

More plausibly, writes Elizabeth White Nelson, the tradition of expressing love on Valentine's Day comes from the Roman festival of Lupercalia, a fertility rite held on February 15. Typically, the medieval church would try to combine saints' feast days with pagan festivals, to boost Church loyalty and participation.

Whatever the reasons, by the 1500s the link between Valentine's Day, courtship, and love was established. The religious meanings of the day faded; its amorous meanings grew.

Rituals emerged in Europe in the 1600s and 1700s to divine future spouses on Valentine's Day. Some young people went to churchyards at midnight to await an omen, but drawing lots was the most common practice of divination. Clergyman Henry Bourne explained in 1725,

It is a ceremony, ... to draw Lots, which they term Valentines... The names of a select number of one Sex, are by an equal Number of the other put into some Vessel; and, after that, every one draws a Name, which for the present is called their Valentine, and is also look'd upon as good Omen of their Man and Wife afterwards.

The "drawing lots" ceremony could get ugly, and vicious. In France this celebration of the lottery of love became fractious. In France, explains Elizabeth White Nelson, once the valentines had been chosen, the woman prepared a meal for the man, and they attended a public dance. If the man was displeased, he would leave her, and she would remain in seclusion for eight days.

But, at the end of this time, "all the women who had been spurned gathered in the town square and burned their valentines in effigy."

This carnival of romantic revenge often escalated into riots, such that in 1776 the French parliament outlawed the ritual, and it had practically disappeared by ...read moreSource: Weird News Blog

SINALOA DE LEYVA, Mexico -- An indigenous Mexican woman put on display in Victorian-era Europe because of a rare genetic condition that covered her face in thick hair has been buried in her home state in a ceremony that ends one of the best-known episodes from an era when live human beings were treated as collectible specimens.

With her hairy face and body, jutting jaw and other deformities, Julia Pastrana became known as "ape woman" after she was taken to the U.S. by showman Theodore Lent in 1854, when she was 20. She died in childbirth in 1860 and her body ended up at the University of Oslo, Norway.

After government and private requests to return her body, the university shipped her remains to the state of Sinaloa, where they were laid to rest Tuesday afternoon.

UFOs are reported all over the world, and over the weekend, they made an appearance in the skies above Melbourne, Australia.

Three very bright objects were videotaped maneuvering in a variety of ways, as well as turning their lights on and off as part of the show, reports the International Business Times.

At approximately 1:52 of the video -- posted to YouTube by FindingUFO -- one of the odd lights suddenly shoots away, seemingly from ground level, at incredibly fast speed.

Watch these Melbourne, Australia UFOs maneuver around in the sky in early February:

While the individual who took the videotape doesn't provide any personal information, commenters to the video suggest they, too, have seen similar light shows in the sky.

According to onlyMelbourne.com, "We receive UFO sighting reports in Melbourne at the rate of one a week. The vast majority are lights at night, and a few with a video evidence."

And then there's Lou20764, who (Warning! Warning!) has posted several UFO videos on his YouTube channel, like the one below, where he writes: "One of the most amazing sights I have ever recorded. Objects not visible to naked eye. 'Invasion' may be the wrong title, but that's what I felt. I hope they are benevolent."

In the UFO world, people who are known as "repeaters" are almost always immediately considered suspect. The more times you claim to photograph something unusual, the less credibility you seem to have.

Since we at Huffington Post don't tend to pass judgment, we leave it to you to decide if Lou20764's following UFO armada video, from Melbourne in November, is legit or not.